Soil magazine by Simone GraceK Kara

The Speech That Will Win The reason the Mites should win the title “The Organism of the Year”.

We at Breaking Soil managed to get an inside scoop with the Mites, including their speech, that will win them the title.

The Mites’ speech shows their strengths and talents with soil.

We at Breaking Soil predict that this will win them the title of “Organism of the Year”.

“We mites deserve the “Organism of the Year” award, because we help the soil stay healthy, meaning the plants growing in the soil will be healthy too. Soil is very important because it produces your crops, yes, you! All of your fruits and vegetables grow from soil!

As surprising as it sounds, soil can also act as a filter to clean water. When water goes through soil, it filters it before the water travels into bodies of water. Soil produces our world’s forests and acts as foundations for buildings. Without soil, there wouldn’t be any forests, or plants, for that matter. Without plants, there would not be enough oxygen, and no one could breathe! Soil can also preserve ancient objects that are buried in it, such as fossils. Fossils can tell us the history of the planet and its creatures living on it. Lastly, soil helps feed plants with nutrients from organic material, called humus. Humus

contains things such as dead leaves and animals, bits of rock, etc.

Yes, yes, soil is very important. Unfortunately, soil is in danger as well. The term “soil erosion,” is a term meaning: the upper part of the soil cover is being washed or blown away.

The two main causes of this are wind and water. Wind lifts soil particles, while water erosion is mostly caused by heavy rainfall.

Both of these types of erosion mainly affect the soil that isn’t strong enough to withstand them. You may think that this is bad enough, but you’re wrong!

When soil is washed away by water over and over again, it can form rills. Rills are narrow, shallow channels. These may seem harmless at first, but they can quickly become bigger and form into gullies. When gullies widen, it means that soil most likely won’t be farmed again.

The soil that the water washes away will eventually end up in bodies of water, and the soil that’s being washed away will most likely contain some sort of fertilizer or pesticide. These two things will fill up part of the body of water, and eventually, kill some aquatic life. So it’s not just our soil that is being affected, it’s other things as well! However, there are things that we can do to help limit it. This is where we come in...

We mites deserve the “Organism of the Year” award, because we put so much work and effort into helping the soil.

We churn the soil, mixing in oxygen, allowing other organisms to get the air they need.

Think about it; if no one aerated the soil, how would we get

enough air? There wouldn’t be enough oxygen to go all around!

We even distribute microbes that benefit the soil and therefore you. Although we may not seem important, we are, because without us, other soil organisms would have a harder time doing their job. Other organisms help keep the soil strong, and without us, they wouldn’t be able to do it! As Walt Whitman says, “Perhaps every mite has once form’d part of a sick person; yet behold!” he then goes further on and elaborates how we mites help in the decomposition cycle, therefore helping other organisms grow.

Yeah, you might say we’re “ugly” or “gross”. That’s just your opinion. We are quite nice actually, and you might say that we’re mean for “eating all the other organisms”, but hey, if we didn’t, those other organisms would take over, and would you rather have us eating a few organisms here and there or them just taking over?

And you might think that our poop would be disgusting seeing as how “creepy” we are, but it nourishes the soil. We not only help other organisms to help the soil, we help it ourselves as well! This makes the soil healthier and stronger, making it able to withstand strong wind currents and water to blow it away. And guess what? That soil might be the home of food that you eat.

We may not be very big, but we sure are important! That’s why we think we should win “The Organism of the Year” award!

Go Mighty Mites!”

Poems from Your Editors

Concentrate Above me I see a striped umbrella with brown poles holding it up, In the distance I see many detailed creepy crawlies staring at me, I hear birds chirping and their wings flapping, I smell fresh tea brewing as it gets carried through the wind, I can feel hard gravel beneath my feet beckoning for gravity to disappear, To my right, I see a little groundhog holding a shovel, I see grass waving in the distance following the rhythm of the breeze, I see the detail of leaves crowding a long brown trunk, In this place I feel like I can take one step and fly around the world. ‐G.K. A Moment in the Arlington Gardens Above me, I see the palm trees peacefully standing against a bleak grey sky.

In the distance, I see the trees wafting in and out of sight, being pushed by the wind, yet moving grace‐ fully.

The chatter of birds surrounds me, blissfully ignorant of troubles.

Far away the sound of machines rolling over straight, yet harsh, pavements is constantly troubling me.

I smell the delicate fragrance of the flowers, threading through the breeze.

I feel the soft skin of a fallen petal, wilting because of time.

To my right, a bush climbs unwillingly, pulling away towards the ground Held up by a fabricated chain.

The green leaves are spotted with yellow, as if burned by falling light.

When I sink, I see small blue flowers littering the ground surrounding a bush.

Bees float in and out of flowers, never stopping and resting.

The mark of man, evident wherever you go. ‐K.E A Garden Over my head, I see leaves hanging carelessly. I see small red berries, too.

As I look into the distance, I see a forest of leaves. I see two tall palm trees.

I hear people’s footsteps in the dirt.

I hear birds chirping and people calling.

In the distance, I can hear the buzz of cars zooming by.

I smell clean, fresh air with a hint of dirt and dust.

I feel a plant whose touch is soft and bumpy.

To my right, I see a field of them.

I walk to a bench, and see little bird houses.

To my left, I spot small irises.

I feel higher up now.

I am calm and relaxed.

I am lucky to be in such a peaceful, happy place. ‐S.G.

Bacteria: Its Everywhere!

As you know, bacteria is everywhere. Even though you see all those commercials telling you that it disinfects 99.99% of germs in your household, is it really worth it? We at Breaking soil decided to investigate how much bacteria is in the great outdoors.

We discovered that our fingers and noses had the most variety of bacteria and fungi, even more than soil and rocks. Consider this next time you tell someone to wash their hands after they’ve been gardening.

The “Control”

Someone’s Nose

The Soil

A person’s Thumb

Readers affected by a “Soil Unit” At a small school in Pasadena, the 7th graders have been learning about soil and its importance.

Their teachers had them write a reflection on their experiences and sent them to us.

I thought the soil unit was very fun, because of all of the activities we got to do. My favorite day was when we got to learn about trees, plants, make seed balls, and look at our petri dishes.

I thought that it was especially interesting to see what bacteria and fungi had grown in our petri dishes. It was fun to gather samples of soil and other things at the Arlington gardens to see what we could find to put or rub in our petri dishes.What really surprised me was when we learned about Community gardens. I found that Community gardens have been around since the first World War, and that an average meal travels 1,500 miles before you eat it. I thought that was really sad, because all of the fuel and energy is wasted just so you can have one meal. I also found that making the propaganda poster was fun, and I thought that our group worked well to create it. I also think that our group had a fair share for the “Soil Organism of the Year” project. Some activities that I found very calming and peaceful was

when we went to the Arlington gardens. I really liked walking through the stone labyrinth, because I felt calm and mainly focused only on my footsteps. I also enjoyed writing the poem in the gardens, because it really opened my eyes about what I was missing. I discovered that I like to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the garden and what it has to offer. I noticed more things than I usually would. I enjoyed hearing the birds chirp and the breeze. I also enjoyed the scenery of the garden. I thought that the math lesson with spirals was interesting to learn, and what really surprised me, was that the “bunny riddle” had the same numbers as the number of petals on some flowers. The riddle’s numbers were also the same with the number of arms on a sea star, the number of seeds in an apple, and more. I had no clue that math and spirals had so much to do with nature. While I was doing these activities, I also learned about soil, how it’s formed, why it’s important, and that it’s in danger, and what we can do about it.

Learning about how soil is really important to us inspired me to make a compost for my family’s garden. With all of the things I learned about soil, I want to make our garden healthier and more sustainable. I really liked the soil unit, because it was a great experience for me to learn and have fun.

-Simone G. I have liked the Soil Unit so far and I think that I have learned a lot more about soil than I did before. Even though I was not there on Thursday, I still had many good experiences. I remember laughing with my team members when we were working on our “Organism of the Year” report and complimenting them on their work on our propaganda poster. Something I learned was the purpose of a victory garden and when they were first introduced. I also learned about mites, which was our topic for the “Organism of the Year”. I think this project has been very beneficial because you can become more connected with the environment, see nature in a whole new way and become closer to your classmates. I will definitely remember counting the petals on a flower to see if it was a Fibonacci number. By the way it wasn’t.

The flower had 199 petals, which hopefully were all counted right.

I had a lot of fun creating our propaganda poster because my group members are super good artists and they always were making me laugh. I had a lot of fun trying out Kara’s technique of blending the charcoal colors with your finger. It made the picture look that much better but on the downside it made your hands very dirty.

I think the Soil Unit was a good learning experience that I will always remember. Thanks to the Soil Unit and Mama Lu, I see math everywhere I look. In flowers, trees, bushes, and the cycle that animals go through. I know that I will respect nature a whole lot more and look at in a new perspective.

-Grace K.

Before the soil unit, I did not know how important soil is. I knew that it was endangered, but not so seriously. Soil is being eroded away to the oceans each day, and the fertilizers in them pollute the water affecting the sea-life. I did not understand that nutrients need to come from decomposing organisms or plants, I assumed that they came naturally from the soil. I also did not know that so many organisms lived inside the soil. I thought that only earthworms, the occasional mammal here and there, and maybe other crawling insects. I did not know that there could be billions of organisms in one teaspoon.

Soil is used in many different ways. It is used for the foundation of our buildings. But every time we build on top of soil, that soil will be trapped under the building. Soil is also the base for all plants, and therefore essential to all life on earth. Every organism needs to eat, and all organisms food eventually leads to plants. We also use soil to grow crops, our main food staple. Soil also holds lots of carbon dioxide, which if released could greatly affect our climate. Soil also regulates pollution. It also preserves our history by burying artifacts within its depths.

I used to think that gardening was too dirty for me, but each day after the soil unit, I wanted to garden, but I would always be too busy, or my mom would not let me go out and buy seeds. I once tried to grow flowers from seeds, but only one survived. Unfortunately I was away for three weeks, and did not think to set up a system to water the flowers, so they wilted. Now I know that some minerals in the soil store water, so I should next

time, just set up a system that waters the soil instead of directly to the plant or even just get drought resistant plants.

For the organism of the year, my group was assigned mites. I learned that there is a wide variety of mites, not just dust mites. Mites, although pretty creepy (to me) are very helpful to the soil, helping by adding nutrients to the soil and controlling the species populations.

Although the soil unit seems shorter than the water unit, we have done a lot more activities and learned more. We have learned more about its importance and role in our lives.

Soil is just as important to us as water and air, it is the base/home of all our food. Without soil, there would be no life.

-Kara E.

The tree that Simone is standing by is estimated to be about 140 years old!

The Flower Grace is holding has 199 petals on it!

A Last Note from Your Editors Grow your own food, it’s healthier, more fun, and cheaper! By growing your own garden, you not only help the environment by taking out your share of fossil fuels used to transport “fresh” veggies from foreign countries, but you can use gardening time as bonding time.

When you buy a fruit or vegetable imported from another country,

you’re telling the grocery stores that you like that product enough to have it imported. Those grocery stores then keep on buying and importing that fruit/vegetable.

By only eating locally grown vegetables you can help the environment.

You might not think that you can make a difference, but your voice matters.

Forget-Me-Not Flowers

Your editors (from left to right) Grace Kuhlmann, Simone Gottlieb, and Kara Eng